Saline Cross Country Varsity Boys Meet

FOREST AKERS GOLF COURSE-The top seven and a select group of boys from the Saline High School cross country team made their way up to East Lansing today for one of the largest high school meets in the state, the Spartan Invitational hosted by Playmakers. Saline was invited back to the elite race this year based on their performance from the state meet last year and got the opportunity to compete with some of the top teams from all over the state including division one favorite, Waterford Mott.
With early morning rain, times were assumed to be a little slower on the soggy course, but Saline forgot to get the memo. Six of the seven Saline runners in the elite race ran personal season bests.
The seniors stole the show finishing top four for the Hornets with Grant Praschan crossing line the first for the Saline in a time of 16:10 for the 19th place overall. Right behind him in 22nd place was Anthony Lamus with the time of 16:11. Also breaking into the top 50 were Dylan Jennings in 16:16 in 29th and Andrew Kitto placed 42nd with 16:29.
Rounding out the top five was sophomore, Kevin Hall who placed 79th with a time of 16:58. Junior John Dolsen crossed the finish line in 114th with the time of 17:15. Sean Dew rounded up the Hornets with a time of 17:27 good for 140th.
For team results, the Saline boys surprised some spectators along with themselves by tying themselves with Waterford Mott for first place through five runners with identical scores of 191. After a team’s first five runners are scored, the tie breaker goes to the team with the faster sixth runner, which Waterford Mott claimed today by a few seconds over sophomore, Kevin Hall. Romeo placed third close behind Saline and Waterford Mott with a score of 203. Rockford, who bested the varsity team a week ago at Bath, got fourth with a score of 266.
By time standard and coach invite, forty more Hornets lined up in the reserve race to compete for Saline. An overwhelming number, 861 runners toed the line for the reserve race. The reserve runners followed suit with the success of the varsity team and all the Hornets placed in the top half of the race.
Placing in the top ten overall of the race was senior Patrick Dunn in 7th place in 17:37 and sophomore Colin Burnett in 9th with a time of 17:38. Also placing in the top thirty were sophomore Brennan Corcoran (22nd 17:54) and junior Kaj Althus (29th, 17:57).
While no unofficial team scores were given, Saline was calculated to have taken home the “unofficial team” trophy as well.
The boys cross team will be back in action next Friday and Saturday at the Jackson Invitational with the reserve race behind held on Friday and the varsity race on Saturday.